Israeli authorities said that a 12-year-old Israeli boy was shot dead by a Palestinian on a bus in the southern occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army said that the gunman opened fire on the bus in the Al-Khader Junction area while it was traveling from the Beitar Illit settlement to Jerusalem.
The victim's name is Yehoshua Aharon Tovia Simha. Paramedics said a woman and two men were also injured.
The army added that the attacker fled the scene but later surrendered himself to Israeli security forces after searches in the nearby Bethlehem area.
Israeli media identified him as Izz al-Din Malluh from Beit Awa.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the attack as “a very painful and sad moment for the people of Israel.”
A Hamas official described the operation as “heroic” without saying that the movement was behind it.
On the other hand, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that a young Palestinian man was killed by Israeli occupation forces’ bullets in the city of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank on Wednesday morning.
The Palestinian Wafa News Agency quoted local sources as saying that the occupation forces opened fire on a car in which Muhammad Brahma (25 years old) was traveling and then took his body.
There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since the beginning of the war in Gaza, sparked by a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hundreds of Palestinians were killed as Israeli forces intensified their raids, saying they were trying to stop Palestinian attacks that led to the deaths of Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.
